Winners Annouced For 22nd Annual Handy Awards

 The Blues world descended on Memphis, Tennessee on May 24 for the presentation of the prestigious Blues award ceremony. For a complete list of winners click here.

Boozoo Chavis Dies

 Internationally known bluesman Willie Foster died May 20th of an apparent heart attack, shortly after a performance at a private party. Over the years, Foster traveled the world and at times teamed with greats such as Muddy Waters. His most recent record, Live At Airport Grocery, was released last year.

Boozoo Chavis Dies

 Boozoo Chavis, an accordionist, singer and bandleader who was a patriarch of Louisiana zydeco music, died May 5th in Austin, Tex., after suffering a heart attack and then a stroke late last month, said Jack Reich, his manager. He was 70 and lived in Lake Charles, La. Mr. Chavis recorded one of the first zydeco hits, "Paper in My Shoe," in 1954, and from the 1980's on he sparked a revival of button-accordion zydeco. "I don't get mad if they play my music," he told the author Michael Tisserand in "The Kingdom of Zydeco" (Arcade, 1998). "But I get mad if they mess it up." During the 1990's, Mr. Chavis was widely acknowledged as the king of zydeco music, the mixture of Cajun (Acadian) Celtic traditions and rhythm-and-blues drive that fills Gulf Coast dance halls.

Muddy Waters Cabin Returns Home

 The cabin where bluesman Muddy Waters lived has returned home. Four walls of the cabin have been installed in an exhibit at the Delta Blues Museum, along with a statue and related memorabilia. Waters moved into the cabin in 1918, at age 3, to live with his sharecropper grandparents. The cabin has been on tour since 1996, most recently at a blues exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

Mississippi Honors Musicians

 Blues men Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, rock 'n' roll pianist Jerry Lee Lewis and gospel singer James Blackwood are among the 17 new inductees into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame. Marty Stuart, Pop Staples and the Staples Singers, Mose Allison, Charley Pride, Dorothy Moore and Conway Twitty also were inducted. They were chosen from 13 categories, from blues, jazz and rock 'n' roll to bluegrass, R&B, country and the classics.

Robert Ealey Dies

 Fort Worth bluesman Robert died Wednesday March 10th at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. He was 76. He began singing in his local church at age 15 with a quartet group and began singing blues professionally at 20. In nearby Fort Worth, he joined the Boogie Chillen Boys and became a featured vocalist. In 1990, Ealey hooked up with guitarist Tone Sommer and began touring outside of Texas. After BlackTop Records purchased several master tapes from the Top Cat label in Dallas, they released Ealey's Turn Out the Lights. On the album, he is accompanied by a bevy of the D/FW area's best blues accompanists. I Like Music When I Party followed in 1997.

Louisiana Red Gets Key To The City

 Woodstock, NY: In 1975 blues guitar legend Muddy Waters was presented with
the Key to the City after recording "The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album" in
the studios of Levon Helm (The Band). The entire town turned out to celebrate this inaugural event and in turn became a part of history as the photo used to document the ceremony wound up on of the cover of the Grammy Award-winning album. Twenty-five years later, Severn Records recording artist Louisiana Red was in that same studio recording "A Different Shade of Red: The Woodstock Sessions" (due for release in the summer of 2001.) On Saturday, March 10, 2001 the town of Woodstock will host a similar presentation of the coveted Key to the City, but this time the recipient will be Louisiana Red. On hand for the celebration will be CEO of Severn Records David Earl, as well as Red's band mates from "A Different Shade of Red: The Woodstock Sessions" Levon Helm, Jimmy Vivino (of Conan O'Brien fame,)Brian Bisesi and Steve Gomes.

John Fahey Dies

 Guitarist John Fahey, whose eccentric acoustic stylings influenced a generation
of musicians, died February 22nd at Salem Hospital in Salem, OR after undergoing a bypass operation. Fahey moved to Berkeley, CA in 1963, where he established his own label, Takoma Records, and began his long recording career. He recorded over thirty albums for a wide variety of labels. He was also instrumental in the rediscovery of blues artists Skip James and Bukka White. During the early 1990s he formed another record label, Revenant, to reissue classic recordings of early blues and old time music.

Blues GRAMMY Winners Announced

 The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences has announced its GRAMMY Award winners for the Best Traditional Blues Album and Best Contemporary Blues Album of 2000. The 43nd Annual GRAMMY Awards Show will took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 21. To view the complete list of winners click here.

Smithsonian Launches Gospel Museum

 The Smithsonian Institution launched a mobile museum on February 15th devoted to the history of black spiritual music that will travel to 50 cities across the United States this year. Housed in a giant brightly colored trailer, the traveling exhibition is called "Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Music Traditions
1871-2001." Its launch coincides with U.S. celebrations of Black History
month in February.

2001 Keeping The Blues Alive Awards Announced

 Seventeen dedicated Blues enthusiasts have been singled out to receive The Blues Foundation's 2001 Keeping The Blues Alive Award. The Awards will be presented at a February 3, 2001 ceremony in Memphis, Tennessee as a highlight of the BluesFirst Convention weekend. The KBA Awards are given each year to individuals and organizations that have contributed to the growth and vitality of the Blues industry. To view the complete list of winners click here.

Sonny Kenner Dies

 Kansas City Guitarist Sonny Kenner died January 23. He was 67. During a career that included appearances at the famed Apollo Theatre in Harlem, international jazz festivals and several years as a session player in Los Angeles, Kenner played with a dizzying array of names from the worlds of jazz, blues and pop. Among the artists Kenner shared stages or studio time with were Louis Armstrong, Jay McShann, Charlie Parker, Charles Brown, John Lee Hooker, Hank Ballard, Joe Pass, Jimmy Witherspoon and Johnnie Taylor.

Jack McDuff Dies

 World famous Hammond B-3 player Jack McDuff died on January 23. McDuff was recovering from a series of strokes and died of an apparent heart attack. He was 74. McDuff's recording and performing career spanned more than 40 years and included stops at the most famous labels of jazz, beginning with Prestige in 1960 and culminating with an as yet unreleased effort on his current label, Concord Jazz. Alternately known as Brother Jack McDuff and later Capn' Jack McDuff, he was considered one of the funkiest and most soulful of the famous B-3 organists.

2001 Handy Award Nominees Announced

 The Blues Foundation today announced the nominees for the 22nd Annual W.C. Handy Blues Awards, the highest honor bestowed upon artists in the Blues industry. The awards will be presented on Thursday, May 24, 2001 at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, Tennessee, and will be followed by two-days of Blues music on Beale Street. To view the complete list of nominees click here.

James Carr Dies

 James Carr, the 1960s soul singer who recorded the original version of the much-covered "The Dark End of the Street", died of cancer January 7th in a Memphis nursing home. He was 58. Considered to be among the very greatest of "deep" Southern male soul singers, James Carr had a succession of R&B hits on the Memphis Goldwax label. Although animated on record, Carr would freeze up onstage. And when his Memphis label, Goldwax, disappeared in 1969, so did Carr. Carr cut a comeback record in 1994 but was unable to resuscitate his career.